Tuesday, December 27, 2011

On December 27, 2011, the Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania posted its chart of County Holidays for 2012 (PDF, 2 pages), which summarizes legal and operating holidays designated by counties for the various courthouses in the Commonwealth. This is a most useful, even essential, chart. It completes the posting of all Pennsylvania court calendars for 2012.

The chart appeared on the website for Pennsylvania courts, operated by the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts (AOPC), which increasingly offers online resources essential to interaction with the Commonwealth's legal system, as summarized in its Web Portal webpage:

The AOPC’s Unified Judicial System web portal site has recently been redesigned to provide more useful information in an easier-to-navigate format. All aspects of the site, including the look and feel and the technology upon which the site is based, were reprogrammed.

Both public and secure information is available on this site. Secure information is available through specialized e-services for users with a secure login. Approval for these services must be granted by a county clerk of court or district court administrator.

The DA Link application is a secure web service which provides Pennsylvania's district attorneys the ability to construct criminal Informations online and submit them electronically to the Courts of Common Pleas

The County Court Calendar provides access to view calendars prepared and submitted by participating counties

Local Rules provides access to search, view and print active Local Rules of Court. The site is currently limited to the local rules mandated by Rules of Civil Procedure 239.1 et seq. [Links, italics, & paragraphing added]

Their work suggests that millions are victimized every year. But only a fraction of the incidents ever comes to the attention of authorities.

"There are millions and millions of people who are affected, and it is enormous in its scope; you go to a dinner, and everyone has a . . . story," Lachs says. "If this were a disease, we would probably say it is an epidemic."

Projected on a national stage, the
results suggest that at least 2.5 million people over 60 are victimized
by family members, financial advisers, scammers, and others. Even Lachs'
tally was likely an undercount because elderly people suffering from
severe mental decline, a group at high risk for being preyed upon, were
not polled.

The resources lost in those schemes will not be passed down to heirs
or donated to charities. Nor can the assets pay for nursing-home care.
Elderly victims who lose their savings often turn to Medicaid, the
government health-care program. * * *

The article expands those implications, however, to include poorer health and reduced life expectancy for victims.

To this day, their work remains the only epidemiological research quantifying the effect of financial exploitation, neglect, and physical abuse on elderly survival rates. Adjusting the results for chronic diseases, race, income, marital status, and the quality and strength of social networks, the key finding was that abused members of the study group died at three times the rates of those who had not been mistreated.

In the dry and technical language epidemiologists favor, the group reported that "the need for adult protective service generally and elder mistreatment specifically were independent predictors of early death."

The study offered no medical explanation for why abuse victims might die sooner than others; it was not designed to do so. But Lachs finds the answers self-evident.

Apart from the chance that abuse victims might succumb to the effects of their injuries, he sees many nuanced linkages between exploitation, abuse, and failing health. * * *

The SeniorLaw Center:
A nongovernmental agency in Center City, the center focuses on
providing seniors with legal representation on issues ranging from
housing to concerns about financial exploitation and fraudulent business
practices. Contact 877-727-7529.

PA EE&F LAW BLOG

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PA REGISTERS OF WILLS WEBSITES

This list of PA Registers of Wills websites, by county, was compiled by Daniel B. Evans, Esq., of Philadelphia, PA. His complete online list of Registers of Wills includes addresses and links for fee schedules & forms, where posted.

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